First things first: I’d like to apologize to my neighbour from two doors down. I can’t test an audio system without seeing how loud it goes, and I probably could have made a different choice than the Offspring’s monumental album, Smash.
In the past decade, post audio players, iPod docks, sound systems, and whatnot have been stripped down and understated, mimicking the clean industrial design of Apple and its competitors. Sharp’s GX-M10 Portable Audio System ($300) is the opposite of this philosophy. The GX-M10 is a hulking, beefy monster of an audio system, and it apologizes for nothing.
Weighing in at twenty pounds (with batteries on board), GX-M10’s bone-rattling sounds come from the subwoofers at each end next to the front-firing speakers, ensuring a healthy bass. It’s not hi-fi and I wouldn’t use it to listen to Partita for Eight Voices, but, for a boom box, it sounds pretty great.
The GX-M10 is an ‘audio system’, in that it comes with an iPod/iPhone dock (inside an enclosure), a CD player, an FM radio with forty presets, and a USB port for an iPad. Also, if you’re into karaoke, there’s an input for a microphone, along with a video output; it can pretty much do anything. It also comes with a shoulder strap, but I fear that carrying this beast around could cause permanent bone injury.
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Dave Robson is the editor of DailyXY. He spends his time reading books, drinking Scotch, and smoking cigars.
